The deadly clashes that are a fact of daily life in Syria have now bled into Lebanon, where a series of sectarian shootouts this week are raising fears that a period of relative calm for the country may be nearing an end.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour said Wednesday that he expects 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgims abducted in neighboring Syria to be freed within hours.
At least 33 more people were killed Sunday in Syria's 14-month-old crackdown on opponents of President Bashar al-Assad's rule, a leading opposition group reported.
In the latest instance of the unrest in Syria spilling across the border into Lebanon, deadly clashes broke out in Beirut on Monday following the shooting death of two anti-Assad clerics at the hands of soldiers.
A U.N. report says Iran is exporting weapons to Syria. Mohammed Jamjoom reports.
A confidential U.N. report reveals Iran is exporting arms to the Syrian government in violation of a ban on weapons sales, the same day President Bashar al-Assad blamed the violence in his country on the work of foreign-backed fighters.
As events continue to unfold in Syria, the future of this Arab nation remains unknown.
CNN's Ivan Watson reports from one town along the Turkey - Syria border where Syrian rebels are in control.
Fouad Ajami says Pres. Obama may regret not helping people in Syria the way Pres. Clinton did after the Rwanda Genocide.
Two Turkish journalists have been freed from a Syria prison. CNN's Ivan Watson reports.
A video purportedly released by a shadowy, Syrian-based terrorist group claimed responsibility Saturday for dual suicide bombings that killed dozens and wounded hundreds in the country's capital this week.
Two powerful explosions kill dozens of people in the Syrian capital of Damascus. CNN's Arwa Damon reports.
One of two Turkish journalists missing in Syria called home Saturday, ending nearly two months of speculation about their well-being but failing to clear up questions about who is holding them or when they might be freed.
Syrians are expected to go to the polls Monday to vote in parliamentary elections that are being held amid ongoing violence and increasing international pressure on the embattled government of President Bashar al-Assad.
An explosion at a car wash near Syria's largest city of Aleppo killed at least five people Saturday, opposition activists said.
U.N. observers continued their mission Monday in Syria to chronicle what is happening in the beleaguered nation, though even the team's leader admitted its efforts are futile unless all factions commit to full candor and peace.
For 13 months, violence has raged in Syria between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and the opposition in a lopsided battle that has seen thousands killed amid a number of international attempts to broker a peace deal.
Strong explosions rocked the devastated city of Homs early on Monday, opposition activists said, just days after the U.N. Security Council voted to send as many as 300 observers to monitor a tenuous cease-fire in Syria.
The international sense of urgency over the Syrian crisis grew on Thursday, with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling for an arms embargo and other tough U.N. Security Council steps against the Bashar al-Assad regime.
Wives of U.N. diplomats tell Syria's first lady to "stop being a bystander." CNN's Hala Gorani reports.
Kofi Annan says the increase in refugees crossing into Turkey can only be the result of increased fighting in Syria.
Turkish port authorities boarded a German-owned cargo ship reported to be carrying Iranian weapons bound for Syria, TV news footage showed on Wednesday.
An upsurge in violence in Syria leave little hope for a genuine truce, as CNN's Ivan Watson reports.
Russia's top diplomat took a shot at the Western and Arab attempts to bring democratic change to Syria on Tuesday.
The beginning of the U.N. observer mission to Syria heralds a new phase in more than a year of upheaval across the country. Success, however unlikely, could open the door to some form of dialogue between the regime and its opponents. But such is the polarization in Syria that most analysts see the mission as the least worst option before violence sets the agenda again.
The first members of a U.N. observer team were expected to begin their work in Syria on Monday, monitoring a tenuous cease-fire that is showing signs of collapse amid growing reports of bloodshed.
As reports of deadly clashes surfaced across Syria, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Saturday to authorize unarmed observers to travel to the Middle Eastern nation and monitor a shaky cease-fire.
The world turned a skeptical eye toward Syria on Thursday after a truce cast relative calm over restive cities and towns previously pounded by government forces.
Despite fresh violence and global skepticism, the Syrian government said Wednesday it will abide by the terms of a United Nations-backed peace plan and meet a looming deadline to halt all military action.
In between taking care of their families, working and trying to keep up with everyday life, many Americans have caught at least a couple stories about Syria. Many probably know that clashes between government forces and protesters who want the country's president to relinquish power have become increasingly bloody over the past several months. Much of that violence has been represented in online videos, ostensibly that Syrians have posted, suggesting the slaughter of children and families.
One day shy of a deadline for Syria to pull its forces from cities across the country, the violence instead seemed to be spreading -- even reaching across two borders, into Turkey and Lebanon.
Syria will not commit to pulling its forces from cities only to have "armed terrorist groups" attack, a Syrian foreign ministry spokesman said Sunday as opposition activists reported at least 69 deaths in the restive nation.
The Tuesday deadline for Syria to withdraw its military forces from towns and cities is "not an excuse for continued killing," the spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday.
Clashes, shelling and raids erupted across Syria on Wednesday, as high-level diplomats worked to foster peace in the restive country.
Former British Foreign Secretary David Owen discusses different approaches to dealing with Syria's upheaval.
The U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria recently determined that the fighting in Syria is not an "armed conflict" (PDF) -- the legal term for war -- under international law because the opposition forces are not sufficiently organized. Yet surely the protesters, dissident fighters and terrified citizens caught up in the violence in Syria believe they are at war.
CNN's Nima Elbagir describes the plight of missing Syrian activists who helped British photographer Paul Conroy escape.
The situation in Syria poses a seemingly unending series of new challenges: Challenges that can either stun you into silence or propel you deeper into the steaming cauldron of propaganda, murder, misery and ultimately death that is now life in Syria.
Officials from dozens of countries gathered in Turkey on Sunday to discuss the dire situation in neighboring Syria, where months of violence has been compounded by a humanitarian crisis.
CNN's Ivan Watson reports on evidence Syrian forces mined border areas to stop fleeing civilians.
Even though Syria has signed off on a U.N.-backed peace initiative, there's no evidence yet that the regime is carrying out the plan Wednesday, activists and the U.S. State Department said.
Facing growing global pressure over rising violence in his country, Syria's embattled president had little choice but to accept a U.N. special envoy's peace proposal, analysts said Tuesday.
Jonathan Alpeyrie has photographed 10 wars. He's captured violence in Somalia, Afghanistan, South Ossetia and Libya. But his recent week taking pictures of rebels in Syria was the most intense, frightening experience of his career.
Key diplomats, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said Tuesday that the Syrian government's acceptance of a plan to forge peace and end violence must be more than lip service.
For 12 bloody, horrific months, Syrian dissidents and many world leaders have dreamt of one outcome for the Syrian crisis: the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is the face of his country's regime, but his family members are also believed to wield a powerful influence on issues facing the country.
Sunday was marked by a slew of anti-regime protests and yet more violence targeting dissenters in Syria, while outside the embattled country the leaders of the United States and Turkey discussed ways to aid the opposition.
Europeans try a new way to pressure Syria's president by putting sanctions on his wife. CNN's Brian Todd explains.
CNN's Arwa Damon reports on the children who have been seriously wounded in Syria. Viewer discretion is advised.
Armed rebels fighting the regime of Syria's Bashar al-Assad have committed "serious human rights abuses," an influential human rights watchdog said Tuesday.
Intense fighting between Syrian rebels and government forces erupted Monday in the Damascus neighborhood of al-Mazzeh, the site of embassies, security buildings and the homes of some members of the president's inner circle, opposition activists said.
Fresh explosions and riveting gunfire punctuated the pre-dawn hours Monday in cities around Syria, opposition activists said, with the ongoing violence coming on the heels of yet another bloody weekend in the embattled nation.
After months of bloodshed that has left the Syrian people on the brink of civil war, more than 1,000 activists gathered outside the White House on Saturday to mark the one-year anniversary of the start of the uprising in Syria.
CNN's Nic Robertson looks back at the beginning of protests in Syria and the government's ruthless response.
A cache of e-mails leaked to CNN is giving extraordinary insight into the life of Syria's first family during the regime's move to crush a now-yearlong civilian uprising.
Two CNN assignment editors discuss how important the activist network is for us to cover the story in Syria.
One year after the Syrian conflict began, the numbers are staggering: more than 8,000 killed, tens of thousands detained, and dozens of towns decimated, according to the United Nations.
The six countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council will close their Syrian embassies, the council said Thursday, calling on the international community "to stop what is going on in Syria."
Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011 when President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite minority-dominated government launched a crackdown against a predominantly Sunni protest movement that grew into an uprising with an armed resistance. One year later, what is the situation, and what may happen next?
In Syria, a rescue operation to retrieve corpses of a massacred family turns up a child who survived. Arwa Damon reports.
Two Turkish journalists who were covering news and shooting a documentary in Syria are missing, Turkey's Milat newspaper said Wednesday.
CNN's Arwa Damon reports on torture captured on video carried out allegedly by Syrian soldiers.
People arrested amid unrest in Syria are being subjected to systematic torture, including electric shocks, beatings and sexual violence, a report by rights group Amnesty International said Wednesday.
Before the Arab Spring came the Damascus Spring. When Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father Hafez Assad in 2000, there was the promise of a modern and more democratic Syria.
Rima Maktabi talks to two former regime insiders about Bashar al-Assad and Syria's future.
More than 8,000 people have died in the violence surrounding the Syrian uprising in the past year, a U.N. official said Tuesday. And a new Amnesty International report released Wednesday says Syrians detained by the regime are subjected to systemic torture.
The opposition Syrian National Council called Monday for urgent military intervention on the part of the international community to help halt the grinding violence and protect civilians.
As the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Syria mounts, so have the calls for military intervention. Bashar al-Assad's regime has been brutal, calculating and impervious to world opinion; with the assistance of Russia and China, it has dodged a U.N. mandate to halt the attacks on its own people.
At least 62 people were killed Thursday in Syria as former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan cautioned against outside military intervention, saying it could worsen an already precarious situation.
The growing ranks of Syria's disaffected appeared to get a high-profile addition Wednesday, when a man identifying himself as Abdo Hussam el Din, the country's deputy oil minister, announced in a video posted on YouTube that he was defecting from the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
The Syrian military's advance into the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs has changed the dynamics of the resistance to the Assad regime -- and put further pressure on Western policy-makers to find ways to help the opposition and protect Syrian civilians. But as Washington debates what's next for Syria, Gulf states are already beginning to provide the opposition with arms and the funding to purchase them, sources in the region tell CNN.
Syria is burning -- scorched for nearly a year by tenacious political resistance, a merciless security crackdown and cries for democracy.
Fresh diplomatic efforts to resolve the nearly year-old crisis in Syria got under way Wednesday as the situation inside Syria reached a new level of concern.
As the total death toll in Syria climbed past 7,500, according to U.N. estimates, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could be tried for war crimes.
The Pentagon has drawn up "detailed plans" developed to carry out military action against the Syrian regime, if ordered by President Obama, according to a senior U.S. official. The crucial progress in military planning comes after several weeks of initial analysis by the Pentagon of what the official says are a "full range of options."
In Syria, the Christians are angry. For eleven months, many of their leaders have stood firmly behind the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. However, Syria's new constitution explicitly says in Article 3 that the president of the country has to be a Muslim, thereby barring Christians from the right to run for the top post.
As the death toll from Syria's almost year-long uprising continues to climb, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem vowed to defend his country's "independence."
Syria says results will be available Monday from its referendum on changes to the country's constitution, a vote taken as government troops continued pounding the opposition stronghold of Homs and other cities.
A constitutional referendum will be held in Syria on Sunday, one day after aid workers failed to negotiate a temporary cease-fire in the besieged city of Homs and at least 100 people were reported killed.
It has been five years since Mohammad Z. left Syria to train as a doctor in Detroit.
CNN's Anderson Cooper talks with Christiane Amanpour and Fouad Ajami about Marie Colvin and growing conflict in Syria.
As the death toll grows in Syria, so do the desperate pleas for help.
The U.S. prepares for a scenario where chemical weapons could be looted if Assad falls. CNN's Barbara Starr reports.
Two more journalists have just died in Syria. They gave their lives for one simple reason: to bring the world the news; to find out the truth about what is happening in Syria, so the rest of us can sit in the safety of our living rooms, reading about it in the paper, watching it on television or perusing it on our digital devices.
The deaths of two Western journalists Wednesday in Syria -- where at least three other journalists have been killed in covering the uprising -- highlight the danger reporters face in covering conflict zones.
Desperation and a rapidly growing death toll serve as a backdrop for a new effort dozens of countries are launching in hopes of finally stemming the brutal crackdown under way in Syria.
The United States is not interested in providing weapons to opposition forces in Syria until it has a better picture of what those forces are, the top U.S. military officer said in an interview aired Sunday.
CNN's Arwa Damon is in Homs, Syria. She describes the senseless murders and level of despair to Anderson Cooper.
The tensions sweeping across Syria enveloped the capital of Damascus on Saturday, with security forces firing at protesters and a Chinese diplomat urging the country's leaders to negotiate with the opposition.
Anthony Shadid, who won two Pulitzer Prizes for his reporting from Iraq, died Thursday while reporting in eastern Syria, apparently of an asthma attack, The New York Times said.
In Syria's cyberwar, the regime's supporters have deployed a new weapon against opposition activists -- computer viruses that spy on them, according to an IT specialist from a Syrian opposition group and a former international aid worker whose computer was infected.
Large crowds turned out after Friday prayers in familiar hotspots where anti-Syrian government sentiment runs high.
The United Nations General Assembly passed Thursday by an overwhelming margin a nonbinding resolution endorsing the Arab League plan for the Syrian president to step down. The vote was 137 in favor and 12 against, with 17 abstentions.
Staunch anti-government ferment is making its way across turbulent Syria, as pockets of resistance have popped up in towns, villages and neighborhoods nationwide over the last 11 months.
Opposition anger is growing against the regime in Syria. CNN's Arwa Damon reports.
As diplomats at the United Nations slammed Syria, violence continued to rage on the ground and residents wondered out loud what the implications of total war might be.
Activists in Syria plead with the world to help them, their voices filled with agony. CNN's Arwa Damon reports.
China and Russia declined to say Monday whether they would support an Arab League initiative calling for the U.N. Security Council to back a joint U.N.-Arab peacekeeping force for Syria.
A Syrian general was gunned down in the heart of the capital on Saturday, according to state media, as fresh violence flared in several cities and world powers mulled a way to halt the government's bloody offensive against civilians.
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